Odds & Ins.

Present-day Stars Will Honor Heroes Of The Negro League

November 11, 1994|By Terry Armour.

The whole thing started with a series of informal gatherings. Stanley King thought it would be a good idea to get a group of African-American baseball players together and have them meet a group of former Negro League players. After a few gatherings, King thought he was on to something. "We saw how much camaraderie these guys had," said King, who along with E. Al Irby owns First Round Sports, a sports management company. "They could sit around and talk about baseball all night." King got an idea: Why not have a huge gathering where major leaguers could pay homage to the Negro Leaguers? That will happen on Monday, when guys like Ozzie Smith, Delino DeShields, Terry Pendleton and Bernard Gilkey help salute the old-timers at the First Annual Negro Baseball League Awards Celebration in New York. Former Negro Leaguers Joe Black, Buck O'Neil and Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe will be among the honored guests. "I wanted this to be a reunion," King said. "I just wanted to have the modern players meet these guys. We need to treat these guys like the true heroes they are."

More from King:

King, 36, who grew up playing baseball in the Bronx, said he is astounded by how many young African-American ballplayers don't know much about the Negro Leagues. "It's almost embarrassing for a modern day ballplayer to say, `I didn't know about them and their history,' " King said. "They played on sand and gravel, they were eating in the rear of various bus stops. These current players wouldn't have the opportunity they have if it wasn't for those guys."

Vacation time: Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz is taking his team on a field trip to Walt Disney World on Friday to get their minds off that game against Florida State on Saturday. They'll probably bump into former Cubs like Bill Buckner, Gary Matthews and Rick Reuschel, who also are in Lake Buena Vista as part of the team's Disney World trip.

Did you know? If Penn State beats Illinois on Saturday to clinch the Big 10 title and a Rose Bowl berth, Joe Paterno will become just the fourth coach to take a team to the traditional four major bowl games-Rose, Cotton, Orange and Sugar-joining Georgia Tech's Bill Alexander, Tennessee's Bob Neyland and Alabama's Frank Thomas.

Marked man: According to the St. Petersburg Times, C. Grant Erwin, a prominent Texas alumnus, has started a faxing campaign to Longhorn boosters in an effort to put pressure on the university to dump football coach John Mackovic. All this happened because the Longhorns saw their winning streak against Rice snapped at 28 games and their winning streak against Texas Tech ended at 24. Boosters really got restless after the Longhorns lost to Texas A & M last week.

Illinois connection: Wittenberg University is making its first visit to the state of Illinois for a football game when the Tigers take on Illinois Benedictine in Lisle on Saturday. But three members of Wittenberg's coaching staff have connections to the state of Illinois. Head coach Doug Neibuhr was born in Decatur and attended Decatur's Millikin University, where he also was an assistant coach from 1977 to 1989. Defensive coordinator Rick Willis was a graduate assistant under John Mackovic at Illinois in 1988 and 1989. Linebackers coach Chuck Martin is a graduate of Rich East High School and was a Little All-America football player at Millikin.

Around the town: Jim Buchen of Arlington Heights and John Fonseca of Northbrook, both members of Team USA in the World Karate Championships Dec. 7-11 in Malaysia, will be honored at the Illinois Shotokan Karate Club's Awards Banquet at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Arlington Heights Hilton. . . . A director's chair signed by Michael Jordan (another career move?), a Walter Payton autographed Hall of Fame picture and a Norm Van Lier autographed basketball will be among the items auctioned off at noon Sunday at the South Side Ronald McDonald House gala at the Downtown Marriott. . . . Chicago Wolves Todd Gillingham and Steve Maltais will sign autographs from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Sports Profiles booth of the "Women of the 90s Expo" at the Rosemont Convention Center. World class kick boxer Benny Ghofrani will give a demonstration at 5 p.m. at the expo.

The list: Figure skater Susan Wynne is a big fan of the NBA. "Skating's pretty hard, but I think basketball is tougher because you're constantly moving," Wynne said. "Those guys have to be in good shape." Wynne's three favorite NBA players: 3. Orlando's Shaquille O'Neil ("He's cool, tough and strong"); 2. B.J. Armstrong ("I think I have a crush on him. He's so well-spoken and nice plus he's got a great attitude"); 1. Scottie Pippen ("That guy is so smoothe").